Plant stayed below FDA's radar

KEVIN LEWIS

Herald Editor

Published 6:00 pm, Monday, February 2, 2009

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Plant stayed below FDA's radar

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By KEVIN LEWIS

Herald Editor

Although no sign of salmonella has turned up in Plainview, the local Peanut Corp. of America plant for years operated uninspected and unlicensed by government health officials, The Associated Press reported today.

The plant, which opened in 2005 in the former Jimmy Dean Sausage building at 3601 N. I-27, never was inspected until after a sister plant in Georgia fell under investigation for salmonella by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to Texas health records obtained by the AP.

Once inspectors learned about the plant here, they found no sign of salmonella.

"If they find anything, they're going to leave you a form citing the violations. They did not issue anything," Garrocho said this morning.

As for how the plant, which employs more than 30 people, went years without being inspected, Garrocho said he told inspector Patrick Moore of the Texas Department of State Health Services that he sent state health department forms to the company's Virginia headquarters more than a year ago, just after he was hired.

Garrocho said he did not know why the licensing forms were not completed.

Moore told the AP that Garrocho promised during the January inspection to register the plant with state health officials: "He will make sure this gets in and paid," Moore wrote.

Health services spokesman Doug McBride said the company still hasn't done so.

"Our first preference is not to go out and shut somebody down and wipe out jobs and income," he said. "Our philosophy in any of our regulatory programs is to try to get a company in compliance."

Garrocho also confirmed that the plant was the subject of a complaint filed in between the state and federal inspections.

"The complaint that I was made aware of by Mr. Moore is there had been an anonymous call questioning our testing practices," he said. "So what I did was send Mr. Moore some documentation to verify what we were doing, and I believe everything was cleared, but I haven't heard back from him on that."

Garrocho said inspectors were back at the plant this morning.

The salmonella outbreak was traced to the local facility's sister plant in Blakely, Ga., where inspectors found roaches, mold, a leaking roof and internal records of more than a dozen positive tests for salmonella.

The outbreak so far has resulted in more than 500 reported illnesses, led to an expansive recall and caused as many as eight deaths. The government is working on a criminal investigation in the case.

But new details about the Plainview plant - including how it could have operated unlicensed for nearly four years - raise questions about the adequacy of government efforts to keep the nation's food supply safe. Texas is among states where the FDA relies on state inspectors to oversee food safety.

Moore said the local plant wasn't licensed with health officials and had never been inspected since it opened in March 2005. Texas requires food manufacturers to be licensed every two years and routinely inspected but doesn't have enough money or inspectors to catch companies that don't, McBride said.

"We can't drive up and down the street to know what people are doing behind closed doors," McBride said.

In an inspection report obtained by the AP, Moore wrote that he "was not aware (the Plainview) plant was in operation and did not know (the) type of products processed."

The plant is registered with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts to do business as Plainview Peanut Co. LLC, according to state records. But the company "was unable to present evidence at the time of the inspection of a current food manufacturers license," Moore wrote in his report.

The plant was properly registered with the FDA as a food processing plant, said David Glasgow, director of the agency's investigations branch in Dallas. Glasgow confirmed that FDA inspectors went through the plant two weeks ago after the state inspection and did not find salmonella or other problems.

Moore reported some unsanitary conditions, such as unclean sections of a peanut roasting line. But several internal company laboratory tests dating back to November found no salmonella or other contaminants, according to documents included in Moore's report.

The local plant blanches, dry roasts, oil-roasts and chops peanuts, then ships them to food companies across the country. The Georgia plant also processes peanuts, and produces peanut paste and peanut butter.